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PTSD-Post Traumatic Stress DisorderHelping War Veterans Suffering from War Trauma, including depression, PTSD, suicidal thoughts, stress, anxiety disorders, mood swings, guilt, grief, alcohol and substance abuse.Some memories come with a frame around them so they will not be forgotten. Very few traumatic events can compete with the horrors of war. The aftermath, for those who survive, include constant battlegrounds within the soldiers' psyche. Flashbacks. Deep anxiety. Nightmares. And on, and on, and on it goes. In the past couple of years, I have become interested in, and use with increasing frequency, a little known technique called The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to give rapid emotional relief to our war veterans and other Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) sufferers. Other causes of PTSD may be a natural disaster, such as the Tsunami that struck the Indian Ocean on Boxing Day 2004, killing nearly 283,000 people. Some disasters may be slightly more local, but also have devastating consequences for the people that survive. Natural events, such as a hurricane, tornado, forest fire, flood, landslides, to name a few. The symptoms of PTSD are many and varied. I know of cases of war veterans who are afraid to go to sleep at night because of the recurring nightmares they expect. They have mood swings and anxiety. They sweat with traumatic memory. They shake from hallucinations and stress. They have headaches and insomnia. They have distress and numbness in the limbs. They have bouts of anger, tears, guilt and grief, and they are visited perpetually by memories of destruction, death and pain. When they wake up, some have no idea where they are and imagine they are in a war zone, or a prisoner-of-war camp. Characteristically, when they have a PTSD event, the memory is SO INTENSE, they can litterally "see it", "hear it", "smell it", and even "taste it", it's so vivid. An intrusive thought, a negative thought or memory can be made very real by our senses. It's hardly any wonder that for some of these men, their families don't recognize them anymore. They have trouble holding down jobs, relationships become strained, or impossible, friendships crumble, just because it's really hard for people around them to understand what's going on. UNTIL NOW, RELIEF FOR THIS DREADFUL AFFLICTION HAS BEEN RATHER HARD TO COME BY. Some men, and women, have spent years in psychotherapy, and even now, after all this time, still suffer with war trauma. They feel alienated from themselves, alienated from their families, their friends, their work colleges, their jobs and society in general. Fortunately, relief is now often achievable through a relatively little known technique called EFT. The technique has been developed by Gary Craig, who is an extremely enthusiastic and charismatic exponent of the procedure, who patterned EFT after some remarkable discoveries made by Dr.Roger Callahan. The cause of all negative emotions (including PTSD), is a disruption in the body's energy system. The techniques appear strange at first, but are based on solid scientific principles. They require tapping on the body's energy system while the veteran is "tuned into" the emotional problem. Doing so balances the energy meridians and produces rapid, long lasting relief for traumatic memories. These are very powerful techniques with a high success rate. It is heart breaking to listen to some of these men, hearing about what they had to do just to survive, how they were forced to witness, or sometimes suffer, the worst atrocities of man's inhumanity to man. Given some of these stories, I have to say that, in my view, many of these men have also had to be just as brave since the war as they were during the war. The aftermath of war, has left many of our veterans with far bigger battles to fight since the conflict, than perhaps they were faced with during war. I have nothing but a deep respect for these valiant men, coupled with a desire to help them in whatever way I can.
Part of the problem with PTSD is the trust factor. It's not just the memories that are a problem, but it's being able to trust who it is you're sharing them with. Healing from PTSD, using EFT, occurs THROUGH the practitioner, not BY the practitioner. This is fundamental, and is the reason I think this process is so successful. Sometimes it takes great skill just to get someone to do EFT. Ex-soldiers have often, in the past, been unable to ask anyone for help, as any perceived "weakness", can be seen as a sign of failure, and this can be doubly difficult when the ex-soldier is a "macho veteran", with a self image which resists help of any kind. I have found that sufferers of ALL types of trauma, including war trauma, find it very easy to communicate with a caring therapist, who approaches this aspect in the right way. Time does not heal trauma, but the sympathetic therapist who works WITH this attribute of the veteran at the forefront, is the one most likely to be able to help them come to terms with their war memories and experiences, and, ultimately, bring some closure to the emotional trauma. This is where other family members can help, as it is often they who will organize a meeting or initiate help for their partners and family members. Current monitoring programs rely on ex-soldiers seeking out help for themselves, and this is where the system falls down. Evidence suggests that stigma and discrimination are a contributing factor to undiagnosed PTSD and mental health problems in ex-servicemen. So, if their families don't inform someone there is a problem, no help arrives. Most often, simple phobias that develop during childhood, often go away in time. Those that continue into adulthood, or start in adulthood because of war trauma, for example, rarely go away without treatment. Soldiers are still being diagnosed with PTSD and related mental health problems, more than ten years after the first Gulf War ended. MOD research has concluded that veterans with a delayed diagnosis become more severely ill than those recognised soon after returning home from a conflict or peacekeeping mission. The MOD and NHS have opted to use medication, usually tranquilizers, as a way of masking and easing the PTSD associated symptoms of depression and anxiety and to help with insomnia. If this really was a long term solution, we wouldn't have one in four homeless people coming from former members of the armed services (A Shelter statistic). Thousands of ex-servicemen now live rough or in sheltered accommodation. Many end up in prison, or on drugs or alcohol. The MOD's own figures show that more ex-service personnel who served in the Falklands War and the first Gulf War, committed suicide after returning home than were killed in the wars themselves. Clearly, more needs to be done to get help where it's needed most! Some of the issues we are talking about include things like: Anxiety, palpitations, sweating, hot/cold flashes, trembling, choking, smothering, shaking, chest pain, dizziness, faintness, the need to flee a situation or location, nightmares, panic attacks, crowds, public transport, depression, feelings of 'unbearable sorrow', psychosis or brief psychotic reactions, intrusive flashbacks, substance and alcohol abuse and sexual dysfunction. Suicide is also a major factor of war trauma victims, who are many, many times more likely to end their own life, than is the average for the rest of the general population. In the early 1990's and with UN backing, a peacekeeping force went to Bosnia as a vital component for restoring stability, and preventing a wider European conflict. Logic held that WWI began as a Balkan war and the Balkan crisis was set to spread in a similar way, perhaps culminating in WWIII. This kind of decision seems relatively easy to make in a Parliamentary War Cabinet, but not everyone felt the same way, and not everyone had to go and do the job. Those that did, came home with terrible stories of the horrors of war, even those only there to keep the peace. War affects everybody; it seems the closer you are, the deeper the trauma. This is what one soldier said after receiving EFT: "I can't thank you enough for the peace I feel. I manage to sleep for a whole night now, without waking up in a terror sweat. I can close my eyes, knowing that the terrible memories of the things I've seen won't fill my head with sorrow and pain. Thank you for my peace of mind and thank god for EFT". This kind of response is typical! Phobia sufferers usually find the results of EFT stunning! Conventional methods for phobia relief, as severe as those attributable to war trauma, usually take months or years to give any relief, and even then relief is only partial. EFT treatments for phobias are remarkably effective. But few people (including even fewer doctors) know about them. The veterans on the BBC program referred to earlier (Real Story - BBC2 - 29 Nov 2004) also made mention that the psychologists were effectively doing them no good at all. That's really not surprising, since Gary Craig, the developer of EFT, has worked with Vietnam vets, who have themselves previously gotten, some would say, very little, out of 35 years of psychotherapy. EFT was shown to bring closure to many emotional and specific war events for these men, rapidly and without the "work through" pain that is associated with so many other therapies. Just in case you are wondering about how long the results last, I have been doing EFT consistently for over three years now and have sufficient experience with it to ensure that we (myself and my client) are very thorough, and I am happy to report, the relief is usually permanent. This technique has been used on hundreds of mild (ie. height, flying, dentists etc.) and powerful (ie. panic, dread, horror, or terror) phobias and typically, they don't come back. What's interesting about this is that, veterans do not forget the memory, that is not the intention. The memory is still there, they can still recount it as well as they ever could. The emotion however, is neutralized. The memory, the thought, is no longer the emotional trigger that it once was. After the emotional PTSD response is removed, most people say it's like talking about a shopping trip or discussing a TV program or movie. Do you have a father, grandfather, husband or boyfriend who served in the military and are now losing out on much of life? Is your family life being worn down because you have a family member with PTSD? Is someone else's clinging dependency having an effect on your relationship or your children? I'm afraid war does that to people! Suddenly, perfectly normal people become withdrawn, socially dysfunctional and all but lost to you. I would invite you to call or write; the details are below. Don't forget, these days, it's not just blokes that go to war, and conflict induced PTSD is no longer just a male problem. Women make an essential contribution to today's armed services, being appointed to frontline duties on ships, in combat aircraft and in supporting roles to the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers. One-to-one help is restricted to the United Kingdom on a personal or appointment level. Appointments are available here at The Haven Healing Centre and you are welcome to come here. It is not out of the question for me to travel to treat someone, just about anywhere in the country, but it tends to be rather expensive. However, I am able to do group work (perhaps small groups from The British Legion Clubs may like to apply) as well as individual, one-with-one sessions, with group work tending to be slightly more general. Still, by adjusting the technique slightly, it is useful for groups of veterans to be able to address issues specific to themselves, while another member works on another issue. Group sessions also have the added benefit that they spread the cost. With the right set up, EFT is just as effective when done over the phone as it is in person. If you think this is for you, and would like to give it a try, please contact me. To see how your location compares to mine please visit the Contact Phil Page, where you will find an address and phone number. Or, if you'd like to explore the use of EFT by Phone, go to Telephone Help with EFT.
If you have any thoughts on this, please write to me at:
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